My First DB9 (probably)

[kuto0314]

Hey Guys, I am planning to get myself a DB9 for this coming December. I am from Malaysia (KL), so the weather here would be humid & hot most the time. This will be my first car ever so I did some research before dip myself into this responsibility!

Here are the story before I made my move to the DB9 (2007). The DB9 & DBS are always my all time favourite car because of its shapes & unique styling look. In Malaysia (MY) we have super expensive roadtax fee for cars with 4000cc & above, therefore high cc cars are less desirable (example, BMW 630i value greater than BMW 645i). This DB9 had caught my eyes for very long & it has listed for sale nearly 2 years and still have not been sold. About a month ago, I decided to went down to try my luck if the car can be match according to my wanted price. The initial price was around RM280k (52k pound+-) & manage to nego down to roughly RM240k (45k pound).

The car basically has no service record history. According to the dealer, the owner of the car had a partner who owned a car service centre so things were done at there. But they are not able to provide me the history of the car. I was thinking, fine, I will bring it to Aston Martin Malaysia to do the PPI before proceed the purchase in the coming weeks. I did factor into some of the repair items such as (Engine oil, Brake Pads, ZF gearbox oil change, spark plug, coil pack & tyres)

My friend & I test drove the car. I am not a sensitive person, when I test drove the car, it seems everything are fine. However, my friend had feedback as such, 1) the car feels like floating, he recon the absorber may need service or repair 2) the car don’t feel like stopping (could be brakepads times up?) 3) With the bonnet open we can see the it shake when changing gear (“P” > “D” > “R” > “P” > “D” – we randomly switch gear), suspect gearbox mounting issue?
Servicing:
AM is not commonly seen in Malaysia, people sticks to mostly Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini or JDMs. Finding AM specialist is very difficult, will need to go survey shop by shop if they had any experience on it. I got a few quotation form different service centre, they quoted me with different Engine oil such as (Ravenol SSL 0W40 / Mobil1 5W50 / Liqui Molly 5W40). I read through many forums & AM mentioned for 0W40, but would that be different weather condition with different oil requirement?

Coming week I may go to test drive again & will test out if there is any misfire (I hope not) happened to the car. Any other things I should be look into it during the test drive & inspection?

[EVR]

Given this peculiar situation, my advice is to wait for a better car, with less potential problems. I can see buying a rough car in the UK (and for half of what they are asking there), where dealers and indies are abundant, but in Malaysia... not so much.

I was in a similar situation, in Italy there are just 4 official dealers and no indies, so I picked one that was close to perfect and could do all the small things myself.

Have you considered importing one?

Edited by EVR on Tuesday 3rd November 10:01

[kuto0314]

I wish i could import 1 though... based on the price in UK is way way cheaper. we are only available to import cars that is within 5 years from its manufacture date or 35 years later... in overall it seems ok for the car, is just what are the things i should be looks for besides as mentioned earlier.

[Big Ry]

In my opinion I'd leave it alone. The general rule of thumb with these cars is that if there's no service history then walk away. It's ok getting caught up in the excitement of buying an Aston, but that excitement could quite quickly turn into a real nightmare, and a very expensive one at that. Also don't forget that getting hold of parts could be very time consuming for you too.

I've been to the AM dealer in KL, and in all honesty, whilst they were lovely people, they didn't have a clue about the product. The guy I spoke to actually tried to correct me when i said I have a 7 speed manual......he said "do you mean 6 speed"...........I don't think any 7sp ever made it to KL, but I would still expect him to know about it. Also, he didn't seem to know what AM Works was either.

I love Astons and think it's great you want one, but if I'm being totally straight, unless you have very deep pockets then in KL I'd buy a Porsche instead (terrible to say I know). You'll get far better aftercare and servicing within a Porsche world than AML over in Malaysia, which will result in you being happier..........sad but true.

Edited by Big Ry on Tuesday 3rd November 10:28

[kuto0314]

Big Ry said:

In my opinion I'd leave it alone. The general rule of thumb with these cars is that if there's no service history then walk away. It's ok getting caught up in the excitement of buying an Aston, but that excitement could quite quickly turn into a real nightmare, and a very expensive one at that. Also don't forget that getting hold of parts could be very time consuming for you too.

I've been to the AM dealer in KL, and in all honesty, whilst they were lovely people, they didn't have a clue about the product. The guy I spoke to actually tried to correct me when i said I have a 7 speed manual......he said "do you mean 6 speed"...........I don't think any 7sp ever made it to KL, but I would still expect him to know about it. Also, he didn't seem to know what AM Works was either.

I love Astons and think it's great you want one, but if I'm being totally straight, unless you have very deep pockets then in KL I'd buy a Porsche instead (terrible to say I know). You'll get far better aftercare and servicing within a Porsche world than AML over in Malaysia, which will result in you being happier..........sad but true.

Edited by Big Ry on Tuesday 3rd November 10:28

hi Big Ry, thanks for the honest reply! that is a sad fact actually the mainstream 911 would save a lot money in here than this DB9. But i may go to do a full inspection before putting down the deposit!